Six people killed, 26 injured in Iraq's violence

21:31, November 24, 2010

Up to six people were killed and 26 others wounded in separate bomb attacks in northern and central Iraq on Wednesday, the police said.

The deadliest attack during the day was in the town of al- Sherqat, some 290 km north of Baghdad, when a twin roadside bomb explosions targeted a leader of a local Awakening Council group, killing three people and wounding 23 others, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The first blast struck the car of Hameed Hmiesh, the leader of the local paramilitary group, damaging his car and caused no casualties, the source said.

Few minutes later, another roadside bomb went off targeted a crowd of people who gathered to look at the scene of the first blast, killing three and wounding 23 others, including some Sahwa members, the source said, adding that Hmiesh himself survived the double blasts unhurt.

The Awakening Council, or al-Sahwa in Arabic, consists of some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups, which turned their rifles against the al-Qaida network after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Sherqat is part of the mainly Sunni province of Salahudin, located in northern central of Iraq. Tikrit is the capital city of the province and is the hometown of former president Saddam Hussien.

Earlier in the day, the police said that three people were killed and three others wounded in attacks in Baghdad and the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh and Anbar.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks continue in the Iraqi cities despite the country's lawmakers approved an agreement that aimed at bringing Iraq's feuding political blocs into a new government led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.